DEFENSE OF POLAND:
SEPTEMBER 1 - OCTOBER 6, 1939

  On September 1 at 4:45 A.M., fifteen-inch guns of the German battleship Schleswig Holstein, ostensibly paying a "good will visit to Gdańsk," opened fire on a 182-man garrison of the Polish fort Westerplatte. One hour later German forces crossed the 1,500-mile Polish-German frontier, attacking from the north, west and south. At the same time, massed German bombers flew in to attack Polish airfields, communication centers, troop concentrations and non-combatant civilians.

Below, a numerical comparison of Polish and German forces clearly shows German manpower and weapons superiority:
 
     
 
  Infantry
(battalions)
 Artillery
(field guns)
 Artillery
(anti-tank guns)
 Tanks Aircraft
Poland
376
2,065
774
475
388
Germany
559
5,805
4,019
2,511
1,540 with
783 in reserve
 
     
  With few exceptions, weapons deployed by the Polish army were not as modern as those used by the Germans. One notable exception was the Polish bomber Łoś, which was designed and built in Poland. At the time, it was one of the best planes of its type in Europe; but, production had just begun and Poland had only forty such machines. Polish fighter planes P-11 were obsolete compared with the German Messershmitts.  
     
 
 
     
  The German planes were often twice as fast, four to eight times better armed and able to fly higher than the Polish machines, but the Polish planes were more maneuverable. Polish pilots were superbly trained and by clever maneuvering were able to score victories - perhaps that is why German pilots called Polish planes "Wasps." Similarly, Polish pilots called their own planes "Bees."

On September 1, Germans bombed the main Polish airfields, but damage was relatively small; this is because, as early as August 27, all Polish military aircraft had been dispersed to small, well-camouflaged airfields scattered around Warsaw. Polish planes, although slow, were capable of taking off from and landing on small, improvised airfields. Under these circumstances, successes of Polish air force in air combat were as surprising as they were numerous. For example, between September 1-6, the Warsaw Fighter Brigade downed forty-three German aircraft and badly damaged another twenty-nine at a cost of thirty-eight own planes lost. Polish losses, although smaller in comparison with enemy losses, would have been unsustainable over any longer period of time. Poland did not have enough planes and pilots to endure over a long haul at that rate of attrition. Therefore, almost from the first day of the war, the German air force had complete mastery over Poland's skies.

Polish bomber aircraft attacked German columns very effectively, but often their losses were disproportionate to the inflicted damage. For example, on September 4, in only one day, the Poles lost nine Łoś bombers - one-fourth of what they had altogether.

From the very beginning, the Germans met with fierce resistance on the ground. The morale of the Polish army was very high, as the men knew that they were defending their country against a brutal aggressor and that their cause was ethically right. This conviction compensated in some measure for German advantage in number and quality of weaponry. Generally, Poles were much better at fighting at night, in close quarters, and in hand-to-hand encounters using bayonets. Germans had a greater advantage in the deployment of massed tanks and in the use of their air force for bombing raids - especially dive bombers and fighters used to strafe both Polish troop columns and civilians fleeing the Germans. The widespread notion that the Polish cavalry engaged in foolhardy attempts to charge German tanks in September 1939 is misleading. There were few isolated cases where Polish cavalrymen tried to break out between the tanks rather than surrender; but, as a rule, cavalrymen dismounted and operated like infantry before each engagement. Horses were used for transportation and were kept behind battle lines during an engagement. Each cavalry regiment was equipped with its own anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery. Polish cavalry and infantry units were weaker in fire power and mobility than German panzer units, but their morale and determination helped enormously.

The initial struggle with the invader on September 1 is depicted in the personal account of a Polish officer who took part in the engagement. The battle was fought near the Polish-German border in southwest Poland where the Polish Wolhynian Cavalry Brigade was fighting against the attacking 4TH German Panzer Division:
 
     
 

About 8:00 A.M. German tanks start the attack. Brigade units open fire from a very short distance, using their anti-tank artillery and anti-tank rifles. Surprised Germans withdraw, leaving behind a few destroyed tanks.
At 10:00 A.M. the Germans start a fifteen-minute artillery barrage. The defenders had not yet fully recovered when fifty to sixty tanks appear from the direction of Wilkowieck. They are coming in waves, but slowly and deliberately, remembering the earlier experience. They approach closer and closer, firing on the positions of the dug-in cavalrymen. The cavalrymen of the 4TH squadron wait until the tanks are five hundred yards or closer and then open murderous fire using their anti-tank rifles, artillery and heavy machine guns. Some tanks are set ablaze, spewing black smoke which reduces visibility to zero for the following waves of tanks. The tanks which follow avoid the burning and exploding wrecks only with great difficulties. With the last supreme effort, some tanks break through the Polish line and roll into the meadow crushing into the ground the anti-tank guns and their crews. Lieutenant Kantor's squadron is cut in half by the tanks which enter the meadow. He regroups both his wings so that one wing backs into the forest and the other is hidden in the orchards of the village Mokra. From there he continues to fire at the German tanks passing in front. The Germans lose their sense of direction and do not know where the fire comes from. With the help of Polish armored train summoned by Brigade Commander Colonel Filipowicz to support the 2ND Regiment of Horse Artillery, the attack is repulsed.

 
     
  The next attack was mounted at 1:00 P.M. by over fifty tanks and infantry. The first defense line of the Polish Brigade could not repulse it, and thus the German tanks broke deep into the brigade positions nearly reaching the guns of the 2ND Regiment of Horse Artillery. In the duel between tanks and artillery, the tanks were gaining the upper hand. Colonel Filipowicz directed a counterattack of his reserves, which again, with the help of the armored train, repulsed the attackers. Returning to the narrative:  
     
 

The next attack at 3:00 P.M. is preceded by an attack of dive bombers. The Germans are initially successful. They direct their efforts to reach a road underpass below a rail viaduct, which would create an opening for the 4TH Panzer Division to the east. Polish soldiers are positioned on the railroad, in the forest and in the village Mokra. There are more and more tanks on the meadow. The focus of the attack is the viaduct. Several officers and many cavalrymen are killed. In the fierce battle, well-trained Polish soldiers do not surrender in the face of enemy superiority. Private Jan Kawiak, the anti-tank gun layer, demonstrates this to the fullest. On his own initiative, he chooses a favorable position for his gun about fifty yards from the viaduct. Firing from there, he destroys several enemy tanks. To keep him well-supplied with ammunition, other cavalrymen and even officers drag ammunition boxes to him ignoring enemy fire. On the battlefield, Lieutenant Colonel Kuczek nominates Private Jan Kawiak to Private 1ST Class. Under stronger and more effective Polish fire, there is confusion among the German tanks. The damaged tanks form fortress-like groups spitting fire in all directions. The others try to find a way out of the trap. Without reaching their objective, remnants of the armored group withdraw chaotically westward.

 
     
  In their Polish campaign, the Germans applied a new tactic that came to be known as Blitzkrieg: by concentrating their armor, superior fire power of their artillery and air attacks, they were successful in breaching Polish lines. Exploiting these breakthroughs they thrust armored columns, penetrating the rear of Polish defenses. This tactic was facilitated by motorized transport, which proved much faster than the speed of Polish infantry and cavalry. Also, the strafing and bombing refugees increased chaos and terror, and blocked roads along which Polish troops were withdrawing.

On September 9, between Łódź and Warsaw, on the Bzura River, the Poles launched a counterattack which completely, surprised the Germans: "What happened was really unbelievable," recollects German General Erich von Manstein. "Everything was going so well and according to plan, that it was difficult to imagine anything happening to change our plans." Yet, in reality, five Polish infantry divisions and four brigades of cavalry launched a surprise counterattack. When German command received news of Polish cavalry presence at the rear and flanks of their 30TH Infantry Division, they realized the severity of the situation. On September 11, they brought in reserves, but so did the Poles. After three days of bitter fighting, German materiel and manpower superiority finally tipped the scale, and German troops resumed their offensive.

On September 17, implementing the secret protocol of the Ribbentrop-Molotow pact, Soviet troops crossed the Polish- Soviet border. They encountered less resistance than the Germans, since an overwhelming majority of Polish troops had moved west to fight the Germans. This attack predetermined the hopelessness of the struggle against two powerful enemies attacking from the west and east. Poland did not surrender to the Germans or Russians, although further fighting was now hopeless.
 
     
 
 
     
  Henceforth, the Polish army fought only for its honor. The Germans had to pay dearly for every step eastward, and heavy fighting continued in central and eastern Poland. Four nests of resistance deserve honorable mention:  
     
 

1.) Westerplatte. A Polish garrison of 182 near Gdańsk, Westerplatte was bombarded by the German battleship Schleswig Holstein since the first day of the war and was attacked continuously thereafter by German infantry. According to a pre-war plan, the garrison located in five bunkers was expected to hold out for six hours when attacked, by which time a relief column was supposed to reach the defenders. But, in actuality, no relief column ever arrived, and the garrison held out until food and ammunition were exhausted - that is, after seven days of fighting.


2.) Hel Peninsula. Located not far from Westerplatte, Hel Peninsula was attacked by air and by a barrage of artillery fire from two German battleships, Schleswig Holstein and Schlesien, on September 23. Under bombardment from land, air and sea, and under repeated attacks of German infantry, Polish defenders slowly withdrew along the peninsula. The garrison, after destroying weapons and equipment, laid arms on October 1 when stocks of ammunition, food and medical supplies were exhausted, and after hearing news that Warsaw had fallen.


3.) Defense of Warsaw. On September 8, units of the 1ST and 4TH German panzer divisions, together with the 31ST Infantry Division, reached Warsaw suburbs and attempted to seize the city. But they were met by heavy artillery and machine gun fire and were forced to withdraw. In the days that followed, repeated German attacks were also repulsed. On September 22, the German ring surrounding Warsaw was finally closed, cutting off access to the capital. Besides civilians, there were about ninety thousand Polish troops who had retreated to the city from the west and north. These troops had not been demoralized by earlier defeats and were ready to defend Warsaw to the end. In order to complete the Polish campaign, Hitler wanted to take Warsaw early, and to transfer his troops west to face the French and the British at his unprotected western border. From September 22-25, the city was subjected to a fierce artillery barrage and bombardment from the air. Polish anti-aircraft artillery managed to shoot down fifteen German planes. On September 26, the Germans began attacking along the perimeter of the defense but without success. Meanwhile, shortages of ammunition (each artillery piece had less than twenty rounds of ammunition left) and food, along with the threat of epidemic diseases caused by lack of water and a large number of human and animal corpses (which could not be buried fast enough), compelled the Polish commander of Warsaw to capitulate. A capitulation document was signed on September 28, and German troops entered the city on October 1. One day before the capitulation was signed, an emissary from Polish commander in chief Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz had arrived by plane to the besieged city with instructions to form an underground military organization. On September 28, just before the Germans entered Warsaw, the first meeting of the clandestine military organization was held in the Warsaw town hall.


4.) Southeastern Poland. The last battle of the 1939 campaign took place in southeastern Poland and was fought by the Polish Operational Group "Polesie" under the command of General Franciszek Kleeberg. On the evening of September 28, Polish cavalry units attacked the Soviet troops. The ensuing two-day battle was fought on the Soviet side with tanks, artillery and air force. Even though German units joined the fight, the Polish Operational Group emerged from the battle undefeated. The Soviets then withdrew east beyond the demarcation line agreed upon with the Germans. A five-day battle against the Germans followed. The group was still undefeated, but now was without ammunition and supplies. General Kleeberg concluded that under these conditions further struggle against both aggressors would only put lives at stake without any prospect of success. He capitulated on October 6. His last order of the day to his troops ended with the words of the Polish national anthem: "Poland will not perish as long as we are alive." Elsewhere in Poland, but with the same words, cavalrymen of the 110TH Regiment of the Cavalry Brigade "Wolkowysk," commanded by Major Henryk Dobrzański-Hubal, attacked a German unit at Chodkowo village in the Kozienice Forest. Thus began partisan warfare against the invader.

 
     
 
 
     
  The Polish navy consisted of five destroyers, five submarines, six minesweepers and a number of support vessels. Four days before the German attack, three destroyers were sent to England to carry on the struggle against Germany together with the British fleet. The ships which remained in the Baltic were, from the first day of the war, under constant attack from the German air force and suffered damage. Three submarines were interned in Sweden, and two managed to reach British shores. One of these, Orzeł (Eagle), was initially interned in Tallin, Estonia, where it arrived to disembark its commander who had contracted typhoid. Under German pressure, Estonians commandeered the submarine, seizing all maps and some armaments and torpedoes. On September 18, Polish sailors managed to disable electric installation in the port and under the cover of darkness guided the submarine out of the harbor despite Estonian artillery fire. The Poles reached British shores by using maps drawn from memory.

From then on, the Polish navy - fighting alongside its British allies, and later with the American navy in foreign seas - began a new chapter in its fight against Germany. Polish ships participated in the convoy services and in the 1944 Normandy landing. Also, the Polish destroyer Piorun fought in the battle against the German battleship Bismarck. For nearly an hour, in complete darkness, Piorun kept on a parallel course with the battleship, exchanging fire and signalling Bismarck's position to the British fleet so that it could not escape. During this time, it would have only taken one artillery hit from the bigger German battleship (25-times its size) to sink the Polish destroyer within seconds. Piorun's salvo weighed 290 pounds, whereas Bismarck was firing salvos weighing eight tons each.
  
     
 
 
     
 
 
     
  In the field of intelligence, the Poles provided the Allies with a priceless weapon: the ability to read the most secret German radio signals. Before the war, Polish cryptoanalysts had broken the secret of the German coding machine "Enigma" and had passed the secret, together with the reconstructed copy of the coding machine, to the French and the British two weeks before the outbreak of the war. The British made full use of that information, building a secret cryptological center at Bletchley Park, midway between Oxford and Cambridge. Throughout the war, they read German messages encoded on Enigma.  
     
 
 
     
  But what happened to the French and British allies of Poland in September 1939? In accordance with the military discussions held with the French and the British in the summer of 1939, the Polish army was expected to engage the Germans for the two weeks required to launch a major offensive with seventy battle-ready French divisions across the Rhine. The Poles fulfilled their obligation, but the French and the British did not. The only "help" from these two allies was their declaration of war on Germany by September 3, three days after the Germans attacked Poland. However, these declarations were not followed by any hostile acts towards Germany. While the Polish army fought alone, ninety-two French divisions stood idle behind the Maginot Line facing thirty-five third-grade German divisions. Hiller's gamble that France and Britain would not attack ultimately paid off: he was able to use all his forces against Poland.

German losses in the Polish Campaign were as follows:
  
     
 
  • 50,000 personnel, dead and wounded
  • 1,000 tanks and armored cars (30 percent of what the Germans possessed at that time)
  • 370 artillery pieces
  • 600 planes (approximately 25 percent of what the Luftwaffe had in its arsenal)
 
     
  In September 1939, in the war against the Germans, the Polish army suffered the following manpower losses: 66,300 killed, 133,700 wounded, and 420,000 taken prisoner. Most equipment and armaments of the Polish army were captured by the Germans. The Soviet army took 190,000 prisoners by the time hostilities from Polish regular army units ceased.